NC-ACS Project SEED program students head to Japan

From North Carolina to Japan What do public high schools in North Carolina have in common with a university in Japan? North Carolina high school students Asia Fields, Kyra Gustus, and Lizbeth Luna-Lopez will each be presenting their own research project at Nagoya University in June as finalists in the 2025 North Carolina International Science Challenge. Fields, Gustus, and Luna-Lopez completed their winning projects through the North Carolina American Chemical Society (NC-ACS) Project SEED program under the mentorship of Tova Williams Cherry, principal investigator of the Sustainable Dye Chemistry Laboratory at North Carolina State University (NC State); Evan Reynolds, professor of chemistry at Campbell University; and Caroline Proulx, professor of chemistry at NC State, respectively.Caroline Proulx, professor of chemistry at NC State, respectively. Fields, Gustus, and Luna-Lopez are three of almost 240 students who have in the past 30 years found success in participating in the NC-ACS Project SEED program. The North Carolina Local Section is among ACS local sections from 40 US states and territories that take part in the Project SEED program, which got its start in 1968. The North Carolina program came to be in 1994 as a cost-free, year-round science enrichment program for academically talented students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) who come from households with low incomes.“The goal of the program is to motivate students who have an interest in science to pursue terminal degrees,” says Anibal Lopes, quality manager at contract research firm Avazyme and chair of the NC-ACS Project SEED Committee. He explains